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Amy Schneider talks about epic Jeopardy! success
Amy Schneider of Oakland talks to KTVU about her immense success as a Jeopardy! contestant and what she thinks contributed to her successful run on the beloved game show.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland's Amy Schneider had a 40-game winning streak on Jeopardy and made history as one of the game show's first openly transgender champions.
Now, she's the winner of the Jeopardy's Tournament of Champions, too, after winning that $250,000 prize.
Schneider spoke to KTVU on Thursday about the importance of highlighting this kind of historical win and to create that representation for the LGBTQ community especially the trans community.
"I think I don't want to be limited to that," Schneider said. "But I've learned through this how important that representation really is and its important ot acknowledge that yes there was a trans person here and giver other trans people the idea that it can be done."
Schneider also spoke about her overall experience going on the show and the possibility of backlash.
But despite there being some negative internet comments about her being a transgender person, what really stood out was the outreach of people and how overwhelmingly positive the reactions were.
Some trans people told her that seeing her on the show helped spur conversations with parents, for example.
"It was such a good feeling," Schneider said. "I was just going in to win some money but I ended up helping people do it."
As for some fun facts about Schneider, she used to be a software engineer, her mom was a math professor who encouraged the curiosity of learning and she was voted "Most Likely to Win Jeopardy" in 8th grade.